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Harlequin Blog Series: Marco Meets Ghezzi

By Sarah Baumann, Marketing Director

Antonio Vivaldi by Pier Leone Ghezzi

One of the most-anticipated concerts of our 2018/19 season is the world premiere of The Harlequin Salon in January 2019. Following on the success of the multimedia performances created by double bassist Alison Mackay, these concerts will be created, scripted, and illustrated by oboist Marco Cera. We’ll be writing a monthly Harlequin blog post to take you behind the scenes as this production comes to life!

Marco moved from Italy to Toronto to play with Tafelmusik from 2000–2002 and rejoined the orchestra in January 2007. A passionate painter (Marco studied figurative art at Liceo Artistico Citta’ di Valdagno in Italy), as well as multi-instrumentalist, he first encountered the sketches of Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674–1755) as references. “Ghezzi left behind more than 4,000 drawings depicting Roman society from the baroque era. These have become important for musicians now,” he explains. “They provide a great deal of detail on the musical instruments, hairstyles, furniture, posture, and lifestyle of musicians from the time.” Ghezzi was an Italian artist who was probably the world’s first professional caricaturist. Marco points out that the word “caricature” comes from the Italian “caricare” or “to load, overload, exaggerate.” Caricatures exaggerate the features of the person in the portrait in order to create a comic or grotesque effect. Ghezzi was an enthusiastic music lover, who held exclusive musical salons at his palazzo for a “who’s who” of Roman intellectuals and artists. His most well-known portrait is the famous caricature of Antonio Vivaldi.

Marco started to research the composers that Ghezzi would have met and sketched, starting with Vivaldi. He dreamed up a salon that would feature several of these personalities: Vivaldi, the famous prima donna Faustina Bordoni, and renowned cellist Giovanni Bononcini. The concert started to take shape: recreate one of Ghezzi’s famous salon evenings for the Tafelmusik audience, and imagine what happens (and what music results) when these famous characters from the time meet!

Marco Cera looking at a Ghezzi sketch

This blog series will continue in October, November and December. Stay tuned!